The present invention relates a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the same, and can be preferably used for a semiconductor device using a nitride semiconductor, for example, and a method of manufacturing the same.
GaN-based nitride semiconductors, having a wider band gap and a higher electronic speed than Si and GaAs, are expected to be applied to transistors in high withstand voltage, high output, and high frequency applications, and are actively developed recently.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-261053 describes a technique related to a High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) including a GaN-based compound semiconductor.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-244072 describes a technique related to a field effect transistor using a normally-off nitride semiconductor.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-339561 describes a technique related to a field effect transistor including a normally-off nitride semiconductor.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-244324 describes a technique related to an etching method of a nitride compound semiconductor layer and a semiconductor device manufactured using the method.
Non-Patent Document 1 (Ray-Ming Lin, Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 261,105 (2008) “Enhanced characteristics of blue InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes by using selective activation to modulate the lateral current spreading length”) describes a technique related to an InGaN/GaN-based blue light emitting diode.